My four-year-old has discovered the stall tactic–some version of which many kids embrace growing up—“Just one more thing.” Whatever undesirable task we lay in front of him, from putting on shoes, to heading to bed, to cleaning his room, there’s always “just one more thing” he instantly has decided must be accomplished before addressing the task at hand.
The thing is, we don’t exactly let go of that stall tactic as we get older.
Lots of homework to do? “I’d better respond to my texts now so they won’t pile up while I’m working.”
Need to make an uncomfortable phone call? “I’ll just check my email first.”
Intimidating project to start? “Well, I can’t start the project until I clean my desk/take out the trash/reorganize my files.”
“Just one more thing” might be the world’s greatest all-age-appropriate stall tactic. But it’s still just stalling.
Imagine the one more thing is done. What will you do next? Start there. Chances are that whatever the “just one more thing” was won’t be quite so important when what was meant to come next is already done.